Running…easy….uhhhh not today but was it worth it?!  Absolutely!!!  After pretty much being out of commission at the beginning of the week with 102 fever and asthmatic bronchitis I was itching to run even though I only felt about 85% better.  I could barely wait to get home from work so I could get my run on!!!!

My plan was to run an easy 2 miles but it turned into a difficult 3.11 miles.  I have a problem where I always want to do more, sometimes more than I should which usually gets me in trouble.  It was a nice slow 3.11 miles but exertion wise I felt like I was running at an 8:50 pace but I really was running about a 10:00 pace which kind of irked me but I know it was better for my body that I was running slower.  I sometimes feel like maybe the Garmin is wrong and I am really running faster than it says!!!  :roll:

Mile 3 was really hard for me because I was coughing and sniffling by then but I pushed through to finish what I set out to do and I felt great.

There are so many factors to running and exercising when you are feeling sick like if it is above the neck you can workout but below you can’t………you know what I think, I think you should listen to your body and do what feels right.  I started the week with a 102 fever and chest congestion so I could barely move let alone workout but by Wednesday I was feeling 60% better and the congestion moved from my chest to my head but after a long day of work my body just wasn’t up for a run so I opted for a yoga workout instead.  If you decide to try workout while sick know that you can always stop if it is too much exertion which is exactly what I figured I would do today if I had been feeling horrible after a mile 1 but I was feeling good so I continued my run.  You can never go wrong if you just listen to your body.

I wore my Nike Lunar Eclipse 2 sneakers on this run and because I haven’t wore them for so long (except to the Fitness Meet and Tweet) I had forgotten how much I love these sneakers!!!

Not only are these sneakers awesome to look at they are so comfortable to run in!!!  I think these sneakers have the most cushioning of any sneaker I have ever worn and one of the most supportive.  I think I will be running in these more often!!!

I hope everyone is having a great week!!!!  I am so happy it is Friday tomorrow!!!

How do you determine if you should run or workout when you are feeling under the weather??

I love Cheerios and I also love BJ’s but the biggest problem with buying cereal at BJ’s is that the package is just too big.  As much as my family and I like to eat cereal when we buy the huge packages from BJ’s it always seems that some of the cereal goes to waste because it gets stale before we can finish the whole package.  Cheerios has created a solution to this problem by creating their new 2 box packages which contains to individual boxes making them easier to store and easier to pour!!!

Another big plus to this new packaging is that by reducing the amount of air in each individual bag, these new packages fit 10% more cereal than before while using less packaging.  The packaging material for these boxes has been reduced by over 200,000 lbs thereby saving 1,000 trees and taking 130 Cheerios trucks off the road which decreases CO2 emissions.

You can check out all the benefits of the new 2 box Cheerios packaging in the video below:

I loved these new boxes and the packaging was super easy to pull apart making it so much easier to store and prevent waste.

Pouring a bowl of Cheerios has never been easier and the fact that it is also more eco friendly makes it a great way to start the day!!!

The new and improved 2 box Cheerios are now available on the shelves of Costco, Sam´s Club and BJ´s nationwide.  You can also learn more on the Cheerios about the new packaging on the Cheerios website.  You can also find Cheerios on Facebook.

Cheerios has provided (2) prize packs of (2) boxes of the new 2 box Cheerios for the giveaway.  Just enter below using the Rafflecopter form and I will pick a winner on Monday morning!!!

Disclosure:  Cheerios® cereal, information, and giveaway have been provided by General Mills through MyBlogSpark.

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Do you ever feel like everything is going great and you are perfectly on track and then BAM, you get sick.  I feel like this happens to me often and it sucks.  Running has been going good, yoga has been going good, life in general has been join good and then I wake up yesterday with chest tightness and a 101 fever  Now I know this is just a minor setback but it is annoying and because it always seems to happen when I am on a roll it is more annoying.

I feel like sometimes this is my body’s way of telling me to slow down but in all actuality I have my 3 year Abby to thank for this illness.  She comes home sick at least once a week from school and every couple of months I get her cold.  This time was a little different because although I am asthmatic I really haven’t had an asthma attack in awhile until yesterday.  I went right to the doctor and come home with a diagnosis of asthmatic bronchitis, antibiotics and cough syrup.  I am definitely upset about the asthma part but what can I do, I have always known that my asthma would come back someday and hopefully this is just from being sick and won’t be a regular occurrence but just in case I will be carrying my inhaler with me from now on.

I am not 100% but I am feeling better today so I am hoping by tomorrow I will be up and running again even if it is a slower shorter run until I am 100%.  I started some challenges at the beginning of the month and wanted to give you an update on my progress:

• I joined Under Armour’s What’s Beautiful’s Competition and I am well on my way to reaching my goal of “revealing my abs” . I made my first video and declared my goal but unfortunately I have been having some trouble uploading the video to Under Armour’s website which has rendered me unable to complete any of the other tasks.   I have emailed Under Armour and I am waiting to here back from them.  Here is the first video I created for the challenge:

• I also started Jackie Warner’s 10 Pounds in 10 Days and made it through 10 days where I did lost about 7 pounds.  What I liked about this program was the exercise portion which worked me hard in 30 minutes or less.  What I didn’t like about this program was the repetitiveness of the diet plan, basically you eat the same meals for 10 days and after 5 I was pretty bored and craving change but I did lose 6 pounds in those 5 days.  I completed the 10 days but decided not to continue on the plan opting to just eat clean and work out on my own plan.  If you want to lose weight fast and can stick out the boring eating plan than this is the program for you.

• I am participating in the Joggermom Marathon and I am 1.2 miles away from completion!!!  Below is how many miles I have run in May:

• I ran the Long Island Marathon 10K in 55:41!!!  Not a new PR but better than I expected!
• I also ran Life as a Running Mom’s Sweat Pink With Me Virtual 5K in 30:19!!

So far it has been a great month!!  I am so excited to be back to running and building my mileage without any pain.  Once this horrible cold goes away I will jump right back into the swing of things!!

Here is the long awaited recap of #FitBlogNYC.  Thanks to FitFluential I had the opportunity to attend #FitBlogNYC this past Wednesday.  The event was amazing but meeting so many new people was even more amazing!!!!

I headed into the city on a 7:26 train.

The trains were a little delayed due to the pouring rain but I made it to Penn Station safe and sound where I met up with Meredith from Dare You To… , Carlyn from Just Keep Sweating and Nicole from Making Good Choices.  We walked about 16 blocks to the event in the rain  and we walked right past the building.  Lucky for us that Nicole ran into some people she knew and led us the right way.

When we arrived I checked my jacket because the room was boiling hot…….I was sweating and I don’t sweat that much except when I am running or working out hard.  I checked in, got my name tag and started making my way to all the sponsors booths.  We had a card which required a check in with each sponsor to get our swag aug at the end of the day!

I stopped at the Reebok booth first and tried on some awesome sneakers with Meredith!  Then as I was making my way to V8 Smoothies and Schick I saw Carla (MizFitOnline) who I was dying to meet so I introduced myself and she was awesome just like her blog!!!  I asked another blogger to take our pic and then moved on to some of the other booths.  I also finally met Kelly Olexa!!!!!!!  No pic because we were so hot that after we talked Kelly went to ask them to turn on the air!!!

After hitting a few of the booths and finally meeting Margo from Brooklyn Fit Chik IRL I headed over to hear some of the speakers with Amanda from Happy Mother Runner who I first met last week at the Zella event.  First up was Betty Wong Fitness Magazine’s editor in Chief who gave a nice introduction to the day and introduced Mia Hamm.  It was fun to see Betty Wong in person because I read her editor’s letter every month in Fitness Magazine.  Mia Hamm, a world famous soccer player, spoke next about fitness and trying to lose her baby weight.  Next up was A.J. Jacobs author of the book Drop Dead Healthy which is about his journey to get healthy from head to toe but trying every diet and exercise possible.  I loved hearing him speak and if his book reads anything like he speaks it is going to be awesome (Full review to come).

Margo, me and Amanda

 After A.J. Jacobs there was a break so I headed back to the booths where I scored a pair of Oakley sunglasses and Birkenstock sandals!!!!!

Top left photo is of me and “Bex” from Bex Life who is awesome!!  You need to check out her blog and you tube videos!!!  Bottom left photo is me with Mia Hamm and she signed a mini soccer ball for me too!!!  The photo on the right is me with Maria from a A Life to Bragg About sporting our Birkenstock sandals!!!

I didn’t make it back to hear the rest of the morning sessions because I was too busy socializing!!!!  By the time lunch was served I was starved and ready to eat.  They served a delicious lunch of salmon, grilled chicken, fruit salad, regular salad, faro salad and fresh lemonade!

After lunch I attended the next 3 sessions:  Gym to Street:  Fashion tips to stretch your spandex beyond the gym with Fitness fashion director Argy Koutsothanasis, Easy Beauty Secrets with Fitness Beauty director Eleanor Langston and Laura Geller, and last but certainly not least:  How To Turn Your Blog Into a Business with Kelly Olexa, Carla Birnberg, Tina Haupert and Julie Fagan.

The Gym to Street session was great!!!  Argy showed how you can incorporate fitness wear into your regular working day.  I loved all the outfits and thought the tip about wearing a sports bra under a see-through shirt was fabulous because I never know what to do with those kind of shirts!

Easy Beauty Secrets with tips from Laura Geller was great too, especially for someone like me who sometimes feels challenged by using makeup.  Some of her tips included using a lamb wool paddle for blending and oil blotting powder to refresh your makeup during the day.  She said the one color eyeshadow every women can use is taupe, it will enhance every eye color and work with every outfit.  Other tips included the importance of enhancing the eyebrows with a pencil, wearing waterproof makeup and matching your lipstick to your wardrobe.

The last session How To Turn Your Blog Into a Business ended up being an informative Q & A session.  It was great to get tips from bloggers who have made their blog into a successful business and knowing that it is not that easy to do without a lot of time and work (not that I thought it was).

After the sessions wrapped up there was a pop up workout with KiwiSweat.  I will admit I only did a few minutes of the workout because I had a long walk back to Penn Station and I didn’t want to be all sweaty.  The workout looked awesome and I would definitely head into the city to take a KiwiSweat class.

One of the best parts of the day was meeting so many awesome people but the second best part was the swag bag!!!  I also apologize to anyone I met but didn’t mention there were just so  many great people and I loved meeting each and every one of you!!!!

After I check out my swag I walked back to Penn Station carrying this 50 pound bag (at least it felt like 50 pounds) along with my other bag I brought plus 2 other little bags.  I made it safely onto the train and when I got into Wantagh I opted to walk home which is about a mile, I mean I am a fitblogger!!!!

A big thanks to Fitness Magazine for hosting this awesome event!  I’d also like to thank FitFluential for the invite and all the sponsors for sharing their great products with us!!!

Sponsors included:  Birkenstock, CamelBak, Grain Foods Foundation, KiwiSweat, New Media Strategies, Oakley, Pure Protein, Reebok, Schick Hydro Silk, Sun-Maid, V8 V-Fusion and Vichy.

 Have you attended a blogging event?  What is your favorite?

Happy Mother’s Day everyone!!! 

If I haven’t told you already I am now one of Fit Approach’s Sweat Pink Ambassadors!!!!  I am super excited to be a part of this fantastic community of fitness enthusiasts!!!  Check out my bio on their site here.

Fellow Sweat Pink Ambassador Erica from Life as Running Mom is hosting a Sweat Pink with Me virtual run this weekend!! I love virtual runs because they motivate me to get out there even when I don’t feel like it!!  This morning I woke up feeling slightly sick and the only reason I ran was to participate in Erica’s Virtual run!!!

I headed out in the 70 degree weather to run my 5K and of course I had to wear pink!!!!  I also sported my official Sweat Pink with Me bib!!!!

I finished in a little over 30 minutes!!!

A nice steady run with negative splits!!!  I definitely feel like I am finally getting my groove back!!!  Now I just want to continue to build my mileage and stay injury free!!!

Did anyone else run today!!!!

Happy Mother’s Day!!!!!

Sweat to Street Sundays is a fashion link-up hosted by some fabulous fellow FitFluential Ambassadors!!

Stop by and check out the fabulous hosts of this awesome link up:

• Family and Life in Las Vegas (Emily)
• Wild Things RUN Free (Charlotte)
• Running and Cupcakes (Samantha)
• MCM Mama (Erika)
• Boobs, Barbells, and Broccoli (Tenecia)

What is Sweat to Street exactly you ask??  Here is the description:

“Sweat to Street has been created as a place to link up your favorite outfits of the week as a new Sunday blog feature. The idea is to have some fun and change it up! Each week we encourage you to post one workout outfit and one outfit you wore that isn’t fitness related.”

Here is my street outfit:

Head to toe:

Sunglasses: Oakley

Top:  Kohl’s

Shorts: VF Jeanswear

Socks and sneakers:  Reebok

Here is my sweat outfit:

Head to toe

Top: Zella

Jacket: Thriv

Pants: Zella

Sneakers:  Nike Lunar Glide

I hope everyone is having an awesome weekend!!  #FitblogNYC recap will be up tonight or at the very latest tomorrow morning!!

After work today I knew I wanted to run but I actually worked through lunch and had only had a granola bar for a snack about 2 hours prior to getting home so I changed, grabbed some Sharkies and headed out for a 5-7 mile run.  I had a route that could be turned into any mileage from 4-8 miles depending on when I turned around so I figured I would just go with how I was feeling which ended up being a 5.5 mile run.  I refueled with Sharkies at mile 3 which definitely helped considering I had skipped lunch which is definitely a no-no when you are planning a long run later in the day.  Lesson learned because my energy levels were low and I ran slower than expected but all in all it was still a great run.

I am just happy I am getting back to building my mileage up because marathon training his right around the corner!!!

Now for some of my favorite things this week:

• My first favorite this week was #FitblogNYC!!!  I had an awesome time in the city for Fitness Magazine’s Blogger Meet and Tweet on Wednesday (full recap to come this weekend).  I met a bunch of awesome people and came home with a bunch of awesome swag…..what more could I ask for?!?!?

Hard to believe I am still recovering from Sunday’s 10K which makes me wonder if  i push myself too hard during races.  Today’s 3 miler was not easy but it felt great!  I started out running with Chris but we parted ways after mile 1 because he only wanted to run 2 miles and while somedays 2 miles is okay I generally like to run at least three.

Tomorrow or Saturday I plan on a longer run, anywhere from 5-7 miles depending on how I feel.  Tonight I am absolutely exhausted so once I finish this post I am off to bed, if I feel good tomorrow I will probably tackle my long run after work otherwise Saturday will be my long run day.

As a runner I am always excited to try new refueling options so when I was contacted by Sharkies® to try their product and host a giveaway I immediately said yes!!!!  I will say I have not been a fan of gummy type refueling options because the few times I tried using them while running they made not only made me nauseous but I practically choked to death trying to swallow them so I have always defaulted to using GU for all my refueling during races.

I decided to give Sharkies® a try during the L.I. Marathon 10K:

I refueled with Sharkies® Berry Blast at mile 3 and they were awesome!!  They tasted great and slid down my throat easily, no choking!!  These chews definitely helped energize me during the second half of the race, especially during miles 5 and 6.  I love that Sharkies are organic and contain no artificial flavors, dyes or synthetic ingredients.  It is nice to refuel with a product where the whole ingredient list contains items that I understand so that I know exactly what I am putting into my body.

Sharkies® also offers a line of kid snacks that are  free of high fructose corn syrup, wheat, gluten, nuts and fat.

• Sharkies^® Organic Fruit Chews are USDA Certified Organic, are packed with 100% daily value of Vitamin C and contain no artificial dyes or flavors. They are available in Berry Bites and Fruit Splash flavors.
• Sharkies^® Omega 3 Smart Twists provide kids with the benefits of vital and essential Omega-3s (EPA/DHA) in a conveniently twisted, great tasting rope. Equivalent to a serving of fruit and packed with 100% daily value of Vitamin C , Omega 3 Smart Twists are available in Berry Surf and Tropical Wave varieties.

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Tomorrow I am so excited to be headed to NYC for Fitness Magazine’s Blogger Meet & Tweet thanks to FitFluential!!!!!  

I am so excited to part of this event and to have the opportunity to meet up with so many other fitness bloggers!!!!  Full recap of the event to be posted by the weekend!!!!

Today after the work I had the full intention of working out with weights plus yoga plus a run but a migraine had other plans for me.  I ended up finishing up some paperwork, taking a Relpax (migraine pill) and sitting on the couch until Chris came home.  I begged him to motivate me to run despite the migraine and the fact that it was raining out.

Two things I hate the most when I run is a migraine and rain but with the help of my husband’s motivation I ran anyway!!

It was a slow run but I felt much better afterwards and running in the rain wasn’t so bad because it was warm so I guess I don’t mind running in the rain as long as it is not cold out!!!

Now I am off to get everything I need ready for tomorrow’s trip to the city plus a short yoga session to stretch out my legs!!!

Do you like running in the rain??